SENSEX rises over 400 points, NIFTY50 reclaims 23,700 led by Infosys, TCS

The Indian equity benchmarks moved higher on Wednesday, March 18, taking cues from other Asian markets. The SENSEX rose as much as 518 points and NIFTY50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 23,700 led by gains in index heavyweights like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro.

As of 9:31 am, the SENSEX was up 439 points at 76,509 and NIFTY50 index advanced 148 points to 23,734.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher tracking decline in crude prices in the international markets. Japan's Nikkei rose 2.05%, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 3.6%, Thailand's SET Index gained 2.05% while China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.2%.

Brent crude oil futures declined 0.8% to $102.59 per barrel amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

As per the latest report by news agency Reuters, Iran's security chief Ali Larijani was killed by Israel, the government confirmed on Tuesday, the most senior figure targeted since the US-Israeli war's first day, while a senior Iranian official said Iran's new supreme leader rejected de-escalation offers conveyed by intermediary countries.

Larijani was widely viewed as one of Iran's most powerful figures and a confidant of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his ‌son and successor, Mojtaba. The security chief had a reputation for pragmatic relations with other factions in the ruling system and foreign diplomats, Reuters report added.

Overnight, US stocks ended higher on Tuesday as oil prices eased signalling a relief from worries of spiralling inflation, analysts said.

S&P 500 index advanced 0.25%, Sow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1% and tech heavy Nasdaq rose 0.47%.

Back home, all the 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), barring the measure of metal shares, were trading higher led by the NIFTY IT index's nearly 3% gain. NIFTY Auto, PSU Bank, Healthcare, Realty, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 0.5% and 0.8%.

Broader markets were outperforming their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 1.36% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index climbed 1.4%.

Among the individual shares, shares of Urban Company jumped as much as 12.26% to ₹123.61 after data showed that SBI Mutual Fund bought shares in the company in bulk deals on Tuesday.

Data show that the fund house on Tuesday bought 3,50,63,090 shares of Urban Company at an average price of ₹109.85 apiece on the NSE.

On the BSE, SBI MF has bought 2,24,93,959 shares at ₹109.83 apiece on the BSE.

TCS was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 3% to ₹2,464. Infosys, Jio Financial Services, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Adani Enterprises, Shriram Finance and Adani Ports also rose between 1.87% and 2.94%.

On the flip side, Coal India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Tata Steel and ITC were among the notable laggards in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,357 shares were advancing while 413 were declining on the NSE.